X-Men fans are eating well in 2026, as they provide the perfect escape from how insane this timeline has been this year. Disney+ just dropped the trailer for Season 2 of X-Men 97′ which is coming out July 1st, Cyclops has been added to Marvel Rivals and in September the highly anticipated Marvel’s Wolverine is scheduled to drop. On top of this, the X-Men are featured heavily in the upcoming fighting game Marvel Token: Fighting Souls, and year four of the X-Men immersive convention The Uncanny Experience is happening September 12-13 in Minnesota. And to finish off the year, the X-Men are returning to the big screen with characters from the film franchise reprising their roles in Avengers: Doomsday. With all of this happening, it seemed only fitting to revisit all of the X-Men films and rank them for your entertainment and to strike up conversations about this team we all love.

Before ranking the films, I am including the Wolverine trilogy and Deadpool trilogy. As these films include mutants. Also Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels were both excluded from this list as Charles Xavier and Beast only make cameos. One more thing, I think it would be a disservice to not include the forgotten Generation X film from 1996.

As there is 15 films in the franchise, this will list will consist of the 5 worst films in the franchise.

Generation X

Released Date: February 20, 1996

Box Office: Made for TV

And maybe this film should have been forgotten. That may sound mean, but watching this 30 years later and it’s rough to enjoy anything about it. Now one thing I noticed was they gave credit to the creators by name, which was awesome to see. But after that, this is messy. Corny dialogue, forced accents and zero action. Makes for a hard watch, although did love the nod to the X-Men arcade cabinet, everything about this feels like a time capsule of the mid 90s. The cast of characters consist of Emma Frost, Banshee, Monet St. Croix, Jubilee, Mondo, Skin and two characters made for the film Buff and Refrax. Unfortunately, none of the characters work and Max Headroom is the villain… No, seriously Matt Frewer who played Max Headroom is the bad guy in the story. The film also changed Jubilee, she is no longer a character of Asian descent. Everything that could go wrong, did with this film.

Dark Phoenix

Release Date: June 7, 2019

Box Office: $252.4 Million

This was hard to watch too! It truly felt like the dying breath of a franchise. The second attempt at telling the Dark Phoenix saga and the story continues to prove difficult to tell. Shifting the focus to Jean Grey played by Sophie Turner was the wrong decision for a film that felt like a puzzle missing its pieces. Turner never felt like Jean Grey throughout the film and sidelining James McAvoy, Michael Fessbender and Evan Peters hamstrung the film. Jessica Chastain, who could have been a terrifying villain is just there to push Jean and as a viewer, we never really know who Chastain is playing. When Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique is impaled due to Jean losing control of her powers over her dad’s dismissal, this was when the film fell apart.

Now to talk about some positives in the film. The film did have a pretty cool train fight for the climax that had mutants teaming up and facing against each other to save the world from the Phoenix. Michael Fessbender continued to give a stellar performance as Magneto and this was the first film that really explored Xavier’s flawed personality. Fessbender, McAvoy and Nicholas Hoult do their best to keep this from sinking but everything around them is just wrong. Dark Phoenix should be forgotten as we move into the mutant era.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Release Date: May 1, 2009

Box Office: $373 Million

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of those films that I have watched too many times despite being incredibly bad. Acting as the origin story for Wolverine and giving the character his own film for the first time, it gave us some really awesome moments and gave us some moments that had us saying “WTF”. For those that haven’t seen it, this film is responsible for giving the world Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and also giving us will.i.am as John Wraith.

The opening credit scene could have made for a fantastic film with having Sabretooth (played by Liev Schreiber) and Logan fighting through wars together. If they gave us a film that focused on Sabretooth and Wolverine’s relationship jumping through different wars, it would have an amazing premise that gave more emotional punch as Sabretooth embraces the villainous side. Unfortunately, X-Men Origins: Wolverine stuffs the film with forgettable characters that feature questionable changes to the character. And finally the worst wolverine claws to ever be featured in an X-Men film.

Sewing Wade Wilson’s mouth shut was stupid. However, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the start of the Wolverine trilogy that would produce superior films and gave fans a desire to see more Deadpool.

X-Men: Apocalypse

Release Date: May 26, 2016

Box Office: $543.9 Million

It still bothers me that this film failed to meet expectations. Bringing in Oscar Issac to play one of the best X-Men villains seemed like a match made in nerdy heaven. Instead, we got Oscar Issac looking like Ivan Ooze from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie and not this menacing being that X-Men fans know. This film introduced a new version of characters that we grew up loving like Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, and Alexander Shipp as Strom. It also gave us comic accurate portrays of Jubilee (played by Lana Condor) and Psylocke (played by Oliva Munn).

So why does this film fail? A massive misuse of characters, Storm, Angel, and Psylocke are used as henchmen. Character designs are fantastic for them and yet it feels like that it was casting off appearance. The Wolverine cameo as Weapon X is the best part of the movie and its unnecessary as it makes zero sense to the overall story between Wolverine and Jean Grey in the earlier films. Michael Fessbender continues to prove to be a great Magneto, however it made little sense to have him only be a horsemen of Apocalypse.

Watching X-Men: Apocalypse left me wanting a solo film from Michael Fessbender’s Magneto. Its one character that has been perfectly casted throughout the franchise.

X-Men: The Last Stand

Release Date: May 26, 2006

Box Office: $460Million

We should have known that X-Men Origins: Wolverine was going to be a trainwreck after this came out. X-Men: The Last Stand was a disappointing film for 14 year old Kyle, I was so excited for this film. Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge and we finally got Beast (played brilliantly by Kelsey Grammer) but everything seemed to fail around that. We get a weird love triangle between Bobby Drake, Kitty Pryde and Rogue that does not work well especially for comic readers. Mystique loses her powers, the first time Charles Xavier dies on screen and the horrible death of Cyclops. This film offers so much action and the end of characters stories but the editing and pace gives no time for emotional connection.

Although the cheesy line, “I’m the Juggernaut, Bitch” will always be iconic for the wrong reasons. X-Men The Last Stand is a difficult film to enjoy. A terrible story arc for Rogue and teases of the complicated relationship between Jean Grey and the Phoenix force. But with cramming so many characters into a complicated story, the transformation turns the Phoenix into a one note villain. Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen do their best to make the characters have a great finale. A film that could have been amazing, so much goes wrong. At least we got a great Beast in this film.

Be on the lookout for Part 2 soon. After these films it does get a little difficult to rank the films, some films are bona fide masterpieces in superhero cinema and some are forgotten gems.